A variety of electrical devices (e.g., portable electronic devices) have the capability to operate in at least one power-save mode. Such operation may be generally advantageous in that it helps provide for efficient use of electrical energy. In particular, portable electronic devices and other electronic devices with relatively limited power supplies (e.g., batteries) benefit from such efficient energy utilization, which prolongs the ability to operate without changing batteries or recharging.
A variety of power-saving techniques currently exist. For example, an electrical device may power down one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a display) when no activity with the electrical device is detected for a period of time. Another power-saving technique may, for example, comprise operating an electrical device in a sleep mode (e.g., placing any of a number of electrical devices in a sleep state) for a period of time. Such a power-saving technique may, for example, comprise waking various components of the electrical device occasionally to determine whether the electrical device should resume full-power operation.
In one non-limiting example, a mobile communication device may periodically wake-up radio circuitry and operate such radio circuitry at full power to search for and receive signals, which may then be decoded to determine information communicated by the signals. Such information may then, for example, be analyzed to determine whether the mobile communication device should resume full-time full-power operation to perform various types of communication (e.g., to receive a message, service an incoming call, etc.). Such decoding and information analysis generally requires, and sometimes unnecessarily requires, the utilization of finite energy resources.
As a number of radios or radio complexity in a multimode communication device increases, inefficient utilization of energy by radio and/or signal processing circuitry becomes even more significant. Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.